A popular Cantonese restaurant bringing Chinatown-style dim sum service to NYC's Upper East Side.

Upper East Side, NYC — For a few years now I've had the tradition of trekking all the way down to Chinatown every New Year's morning to culinarily ring in the new year with some very traditional Chinese dim sum, a style of Chinese cuisine prepared as small bite-sized portions of food served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. The dim sum usually comes with tea, and almost always — as should be — served from a cart that's wheeled around between tables where diners can choose from a selection of dumplings, rolls, and buns, and can do so repeatedly throughout their meal.

And it only took several years and a recent food blog newsletter to alert me to the fact that I no longer need to make the trip all the way downtown to get Chinatown-style dim sum, discovering that a place called Cafe Evergreen is serving cart-delivered dim sum every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, just a 10-minute walk from my front door.

And the dim sum is indeed excellent — delicious, fresh, well-executed, and plentiful in variety and portion, even for the small, appetizer-size plates.

The price is even right as each plate of steamed or fried dumplings, rolls, and buns serves 2–4 of each items and costs only about $5.

So now, instead of treating myself only once a year, I can far more easily and quickly enjoy one of my all-time favorite cuisines with a classically traditional service of some excellently prepared, bite-sized dishes more often — and will now do so as I've decided that I will be making a more frequent habit of enjoying Cafe Evergreen's excellent dim sum (and kind, courteous, professional service) the last Sunday of every month!